Ravens Spotted Tendencies in the Dolphins Defense and Exploited Them

For the second straight week, the Ravens easily won a game that most were expecting to come down to the wire. Their 33-19 win over the NFC’s #1-seeded 49ers in Week 16 sent a loud message to the rest of the NFL. Their 56-19 win over the AFC’s #2-seeded Dolphins on Sunday validated that message: The Ravens are the NFL’s team to beat entering the playoffs.

Lamar Jackson solidified his chances of taking home the league MVP award after firing more touchdowns (5) than incompletions (3). He made several big-time throws against tight coverage that changed the game.

When Jackson wasn’t making precise throws, offensive coordinator Todd Monken was breaking down Miami’s coverages and taking advantage of their injury-depleted defense. On multiple occasions, he saw how Miami responded to certain formations and concepts and then used that knowledge to attack them later for big plays.

The first instance of this took place on Baltimore’s opening drive. This initial play would be called back by a penalty, but it provided Monken with some valuable information.

This was 3rd-and-6, a high probability man-coverage situation. Here, the Ravens came out in an empty formation with 3 wide receivers in a trips bunch to the left. To the right, they aligned tight end Isaiah Likely in the slot and running back Justice Hill on the perimeter. The Dolphins matched up with linebacker Duke Riley over Hill, an indicator of man coverage:

Hill then motioned into the backfield and Riley went with him. The final look before the snap was a 3x1 with 2 receivers to the boundary in Hill and Likely. They would run a curl/wheel-route combination:

The curl was designed to create traffic for Riley as he chased the wheel. And it worked as planned. Riley would go under the curl and end up trailing Hill.